Articles Tagged withnursing home abuse ny

Many nursing homes have attractive lobbies and enticing amenities but neglect to provide medical care to their patients. Geriatric researchers call this disconnect “the chandelier effect”. Because short term medicare patients are much more lucrative than long term medicaid patients, nursing home are investing in luxurious facilities but most often neglect medical care. Very often these luxurious facilities are understaffed in nurses and aids and do not have doctors on staff that can provide the intensive care that rehabilitation requires.

In an excellent article Katie Thomas from the New York Times describes how some patients who were promised amazing care ended back in the hospital with infections and bedsores. Katie Thomas also denounced how this race for profitability is marginalizing long term medicaid patients with extensive medical needs.

In New York for example, the Medford Multicare Center for living on Long Island recently open the “LUX” wing for short term rehabilitation with all kind of bells and whistles to lure patients while last year nine of its employees were arrested for negligence that caused the death of patients and injured several others (see previous blog)

10 employees of a New York nursing home neglected and mistreated a resident who was completely dependent on the nursing home staff for his care. The patient was a double amputee who also suffered from partial upper body paralysis. An investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman revealed a disturbing pattern of pervasive neglect at Blossom North Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rochester, NY. According to the footage from a hidden video camera, “nurses allegedly failed to dispense prescription medications, measure blood sugar and blood pressure levels or properly care for the resident’s catheter. Aides allegedly neglected the resident’s incontinence care and his prescribed range of motion exercises and several are alleged to have transferred him in a potentially unsafe manner. In some instances, the resident had no hands-on care during the aides’ entire shifts and was left to lay immobile in his bed for hours at a time. The nurses and aides then allegedly falsified documents in an effort to conceal their neglect”.

The employees have been charged with falsifying documents, willful violation of the public health law and for some of them endangering the welfare of a physically disabled person. They may be sentence to up to 4 years in jail.

Blossom North Nursing and Rehabilitation Center has a below average rating of 2 stars by Medicare. An inspection report from last fall shows that the nursing home had mistreatment deficiencies, quality care deficiencies, resident assessment deficiencies, resident rights deficiencies, pharmacy service deficiencies, environmental deficiencies and fire safety deficiencies. Previous complaints also show a history of abuse, neglect and mistreatment. Not surprisingly under staffing is also a major issue at this New York nursing home where a registered nurse spends in average 19 minutes a day per patient compared to a New York State average of 48 minutes.